Do You Know What the Lyrics of Vande Mataram Mean?

It’s never too late to learn the meaning of the national song.

Bolo ‘Vande Mataram’...

Image: Rahul Gupta/The Quint

Camera: Athar Rather
Director: Tridip Mandal
Video Editor: Prashant Chauhan

(This story was first published on 10 November 2017. It has been reposted from The Quint's archives on the eve of India's 75th Independence Day)

I remember learning the lyrics of Vande Mataram, for the first time, when I was in the fifth standard. I went to a cassette shop with my father and bought Lata Mangeshkar’s Vande Mataram tape. The cover of the tape had the lyrics on it. My friend and I learned the entire song and sang it for Independence Day celebrations at school. At that time, I knew that the song, written by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay and composed by Rabindranath Tagore, was an ode to our country. However, little did I know what each and every Sanskrit word in the song meant.

As they say, better later than never. Therefore, I made an attempt to understand what the song means, a good 17 years later, and I’d like to thank BJP leader Navin Kumar Singh for motivating me, this time. Wondering how? Click the link below.

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